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VII. Healthcare
Guiding Principle
157. Hong Kong has a robust and reliable healthcare system, staffed by excellent healthcare workers of high professional standards. The provision of quality and affordable healthcare services to the general public is indeed a proud achievement.
158. Our rapidly ageing population has increased demand for healthcare services. The growing prevalence of certain diseases, advances in healthcare technology and public expectations for healthcare services to keep up with the latest medical practices have led to a rise in medical costs. We must tackle the root of the problem to ensure the sustainable development of our healthcare system.
Twin-track System for Public and Private Healthcare Sectors
159. We should remain committed to the twin-track system for public and private healthcare sectors. Under the system, public medical services will provide a safety net for the people, with private healthcare services giving more choice for those who can afford to pay. We should ensure the balanced and continuous development of both public and private healthcare sectors. To achieve this, we should reinforce the public healthcare system by enhancing its services and effectiveness, while facilitating the development of the private healthcare sector and improving the regulatory mechanism.
160. Public-private partnership in healthcare services can foster healthy competition and co-operation among healthcare services providers. This may also help shorten the waiting time for public healthcare services. To optimise the use of healthcare resources in both public and private sectors, the Hospital Authority (HA) will study the feasibility of further service outsourcing.
Public Healthcare System
161. The Government allocated additional funding of about $2.5 billion to the HA last year, raising its annual recurrent subvention to $40.4 billion. We will continue to set aside resources to strengthen our public healthcare system and enhance its service quality. The HA will add about 150 acute patient beds in the coming year. On top of this, as I mentioned earlier, we will add 130 convalescent beds and explore the option of converting Wong Chuk Hang Hospital into an institution with convalescent and infirmary services.
162. The HA will further enhance its diagnostic and treatment services for people with critical illnesses. It will expand the application of drugs listed in its Drug Formulary. The HA will also optimise its waiting list management of specialist out-patient clinics to ensure that patients will receive the necessary service and treatment at the earliest possible time.
163. The recently completed North Lantau Hospital will come into operation in phases this year. The expansion of Tseung Kwan O Hospital and the phase two redevelopment of Caritas Medical Centre will also be completed in 2013 and 2014 respectively. To ensure that our hospital facilities can meet public needs, we are actively pursuing the construction of Tin Shui Wai Hospital; the expansion and redevelopment of United Christian Hospital, Kwong Wah Hospital and Queen Mary Hospital; and the construction of the new Centre of Excellence in Paediatrics. We will revisit the demand for medical facilities in Kowloon. If necessary, we will expedite the development of the reserved hospital site at the Kai Tak Development Area. Also, we plan to redevelop Kwai Chung Hospital so as to render more targeted care and support to mental patients.
164. The HA is very concerned about the work pressure faced by its frontline healthcare workers. In view of the increasing workload and the tight manpower situation, the HA has implemented a series of improvement measures to help reduce staff wastage and retain talent. These include enhancing promotion prospects, hiring additional part-time doctors, providing special honorarium and on-call allowance, and strengthening support for blood testing services and other clerical duties. In the past year or so, the HA has added 294 associate consultants and hired 250 part-time doctors. It will continue to maintain close communication with frontline staff to examine feasible measures with a view to further reducing the wastage of healthcare workers, improving the working environment, boosting morale and enhancing services.
165. To ensure that patients in serious condition will receive immediate treatment, the Accident and Emergency (A&E) department of public hospitals has put in place a triage system to classify patients' clinical condition into five categories. The HA has been able to meet its waiting time target for critical, emergency and urgent cases. To shorten the waiting time for semi-urgent and non-urgent cases, last year the HA increased the manpower in the A&E department and, after drawing reference from overseas healthcare models, enhanced the support for the nursing grade staff and other para-medical personnel in the A&E department. It has also enhanced support for auxiliary medical services during flu seasons. Starting from the first quarter of this year, the HA will provide healthcare personnel with a special overtime honorarium in order to add more consultation sessions during peak hours to further improve A&E services.
166. Since its establishment over 20 years ago, the HA has been providing quality healthcare services with international acclaim. In view of the ageing population and the changing public needs for healthcare services, we will set up a steering committee to conduct a comprehensive review of the operation of the HA to explore viable measures for enhancing the cost-effectiveness and quality of its services.
Regulation of Private Hospitals
167. We will introduce necessary measures to support the development of healthcare services, including the disposal of land for private hospital development. We have also established a Steering Committee on Review of the Regulation of Private Healthcare Facilities, which is tasked to review the regulatory regime for private healthcare facilities, with a view to strengthening the regulatory role of the Department of Health, enhancing the quality and transparency of private healthcare services, and promoting patients' rights.
Review of Healthcare Manpower
168. In addition, we have set up a steering committee to conduct a strategic review of healthcare manpower planning and professional development. After assessing the manpower needs in various healthcare professions, the steering committee will put forward recommendations on how to cope with anticipated demand for healthcare manpower, strengthen professional training and facilitate professional development. We expect to complete the review in 2013 and after that, to start the follow-up work.
Chinese Medicine
169. The Preparatory Task Force on the Chinese Medicine Development Committee appointed by the current-term Government has put forward proposals on the Committee's terms of reference and composition. I will set up the Chinese Medicine Development Committee at the end of this month. The Committee will focus its studies on policies and measures to further the development of the Chinese medicine industry. Key study areas include enhancing the professional standards and status of Chinese medicine practitioners; strengthening research and development of Chinese medicine; promoting treatment with integrated Chinese and Western medicine; expanding the role of Chinese medicine practitioners and Chinese medicine in the public healthcare system; and introducing Chinese medicine in-patient services.
Healthcare Financing
170. A working group and a consultative group have been set up to make specific recommendations on the implementation of the Health Protection Scheme (HPS). They are also studying the provision of reasonable and necessary financial incentives or public subsidies to facilitate implementation of the scheme, such as tax breaks, to encourage people to purchase health insurance. We hope that, through their voluntary participation in a government-regulated HPS, people can have access to private healthcare services which offer more value-for-money. We will put forward a proposal on the HPS in 2013 for public consultation.
(To be continued)
Ends/Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Issued at HKT 12:55
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